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 A passionate believer that social justice could be achieved through American democracy, Saul Alinsky methodically showed the "have-nots" how to organize their communities, target the power brokers and politically out-maneuver them. The lessons he taught people about the nature of power, imparted dignity to the poor and helped create a backyard revolution in cities across America. His work influenced the struggle for civil rights and the farm workers movement, as well as the very nature of political protest. He was a mentor to several generations of organizers like Ed Chambers, Fred Ross and Cesar Chavez. Alinsky's still thriving Industrial Areas Foundation became the training ground for organizers who formed some of the most important social change and community groups in the country. ALINSKY'S PERSONA Alinsky was a larger-than-life figure, possessed of an extraordinary ego, boundless energy and an ability to captivate, entertain and outrage his listeners. As biographer Sanford Horwitt says, he had the gift "...of making everyone he came in contact with feel that the encounter with him had been a special, central one." At one time Saul Alinsky was a name known to millions: he cast a fearsome shadow across the land when invited by concerned liberals and ministers to "clean up the town" - organizing the disenfranchised to fight back against racism, poverty and isolation.
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